Marvellous stories told by magicians

This biennial event used to take place at Copenhagen and featured talks by cinematographers (Agnès Godard, AFC, and Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, ASC, were our brilliant representatives). This year, it was extended to director-cinematographer pairs.
Therefore, I was able to spend four days in Austria’s very cinegenic capital in very pleasant company. Indeed, although I was the introductory moderator, the New Zealand duo I introduced was composed of Christine Jeffs, the talented and promising director of Rain, Sylvia, and Sunshine Cleaning, and cinematographer Jeff Toon, ASC, NZSC, who work together as a team both on the set and off.

I then became a spectator of the other duos on the programme : Peter Weir-Russel Boyd, ACS, ASC, and Alan Parker-Michael Seresin, BSC, completed by…a solo by wonderful Luca Bigazzi, since his director Paolo Sorrentino cancelled at the last minute, and wonderfully moderated by our friend Andreas Fischer-Hansen, DFF. I was like a small child listening to the marvellous stories told by magicians and was able to rediscover the images from the magnificent film Master and Commander (amongst others), commented by Peter Weir and Russel Boyd.
All of the directors and cinematographers in the duos were perfectly attuned to their counterparts ; they seemed as thick as thieves. Even though that exists in France, too, it made me feel a lot better after the “trench warfare” ambience we’ve been experiencing here the last few months.

The event was perfectly organized by the AAC and especially its President, Astrid Kneubrandtner, who never spared herself but always kept her radiant smile. She was assisted by her team and the Imago Master Class Committee (Jan Weincke DFF, Ron Johansson ACS, and Herman Verschuur NSC) and the Vienna Film Commission which gave us tours of all the potential “locations” in the city and generously contributed to the event (I heard the budget was over 100,000 Euros…, it’s true that Australia and New Zealand are far away !).
The Danish, who have historically been the heart and soul of these “Inspiration” Master Classes, were greatly in attendance, as well as about 20 members of the DFF, and a dozen students from the Copenhagen Cinema School. There were our friends from K5600 Lighting and Transvideo, Jacques and Marc, the indefatigable globetrotters of the French cinema equipment industry, who are so beloved by the cinema universe. There was also Benjamin Bergery and his magical camera, and Philippe Ros, AFC, the guest of the DFF. And for dessert : “Sacher Torte”. Sehr Gut !

(On top of this article, Michael Seresin and Alan Parker - Photo Imago DR)